Grouse of the Northern Cattle Plains 97 



erally flushed before we came up to the dog, rising 

 all together, so as to give only a right and left. 



When the morning was well advanced the grouse 

 left the stubble fields and flew into the adjoining 

 prairie. We marked down several coveys into one 

 spot, where the ground was rolling and there were 

 here and there a few bushes in the hollows. Care- 

 fully hunting over this, we found two or three cov- 

 eys and had excellent sport out of each. The sharp- 

 tails in these places lay very close, and we had to 

 walk them up, when they rose one at a time, and 

 thus allowed us shot after shot ; whereas, as already 

 said, earlier in the day we merely got a quick right 

 and left at each covey. At least half the time we 

 were shooting in our rubber overcoats, as the 

 weather was cloudy and there were frequent flurries 

 of rain. 



We rested a couple of hours at noon for lunch, 

 and the afternoon's sport was simply a repetition 

 of the morning's, except that we had but one dog to 

 work with; for shortly after mid-day the stub-tail 

 pointer, for his sins, encountered a skunk, with 

 which he waged prompt and valiant battle thereby 

 rendering himself, for the balance of the time, 

 wholly useless as a servant and highly offensive as 

 a companion. 



The setter pup did well, ranging very freely, but 

 naturally got tired and careless, flushing his birds 

 half the time; and we had to stop when we still 

 had a good hour of daylight left. Nevertheless we 

 had in our wagon, when we came in at night, a 



E VOL. IV. 



